COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2025

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

The Company is a defendant in various litigation matters generally arising out of the ordinary course of business. Based on information currently available, the Company does not believe that any additional liability in excess of the amounts currently disclosed below or additional matters or proceedings presently pending, or the legal sufficiency of insurance claims or the solvency of insurance carriers, where applicable, will have a material adverse effect on the consolidated financial condition, results of operations, liquidity or cash flows.

Environmental Liabilities. The Company has realized commitments attributable to environmental remediation activities primarily associated with former manufacturing sites of the HPC business. In coordination with local and federal regulatory agencies, we have conducted testing on certain sites which have resulted in the identification of contamination that has been attributed to historic activities at the properties, resulting in the realization of incremental costs to be assumed by the Company towards the remediation of these properties and the recognition of an environmental remediation liability. We have not conducted invasive testing at all sites and locations and have identified an environmental remediation liability to the extent such remediation requirements have been identified and are considered estimable. The following is a summary of the environment remediation liability as of September 30, 2025 and 2024:


(in millions)	2025		2024
Environmental remediation liability	$	5.4	$	4.5
Reported as:
Other current liabilities	1.8		0.8
Other long-term liabilities	3.5		3.7

The Company’s environmental remediation liabilities are measured at the expected value of future cash outflows discounted to their present value using a discount rate of 5%. Based on current estimates, the expected payments for environmental remediation for the next five years and thereafter at September 30, 2025, are as follows:


(in millions)	Amount
2026	$	2.0
2027	2.5
2028	0.2
2029	0.3
2030	0.4
Thereafter	1.3
Total payments	6.7
Amount representing interest	1.3
Total environmental obligation	$	5.4

Product Liability. The Company may be named as a defendant in lawsuits involving product liability claims and maintains a liability in the amount of management's estimate for aggregate exposure for such liability based upon probable loss from loss reports, individual cases, and losses incurred but not reported, including projected costs for legal support and expected coverage provided by insurance or other indemnities. As of September 30, 2025, and 2024, the Company recognized $2.0 million and $2.2 million in product liability, respectively, included in Other Current Liabilities on the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position.

HPC Product Safety Recalls. The Company and its HPC segment had initiated voluntary product safety recalls in collaboration with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC") for specific products and has assessed the costs for anticipated returns, inventory loss, and other costs to facilitate the recall such as refunds, rework and destruction of affected products, as needed, and evaluated the probability of redemption. As of September 30, 2025 and 2024, the Company has recognized $3.9 million and $6.1 million in Other Current Liabilities on the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position associated with the estimated costs for the recalls. For certain products affected by the recall, the Company has contractual indemnification provisions with third parties and as of September 30, 2025 and 2024, the Company has recognized $7.6 million and $8.1 million in Other Receivables, respectively, on the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position related to such indemnifications.

Tristar Business Acquisition Litigation. On February 28, 2022, the Company acquired all of the membership interests of HPC Brands, LLC, which consisted of the home appliances and cookware business of Tristar Products, Inc. (the "Tristar Business") pursuant to a Membership Interest Purchase agreement dated February 3, 2022 (the "Acquisition Agreement"). Following the purchase of the Tristar Business in February 2022, the Company and its HPC segment were detrimentally impacted by aspects of the acquired business’ operations and products, which negatively impacted subsequent operating performance and partner relationships of the acquired brands and segment. Since the acquisition, the acquired business realized, among other things, significant distribution challenges, increased levels of retail inventory, reduced sales, increased promotional spending and deductions, higher level of product returns, and overall increased amount of costs. Additionally, the segment had realized losses attributable to recalls for products associated with the acquired brands, increased risks over the realizability of receivables and inventory, and recognized an impairment on assets including the acquired goodwill and the PowerXL® tradename intangible assets and disposed of certain inventory and products associated with the acquired brands. During the year ended September 30, 2023, the Company submitted a claim under its representation and warranty insurance policies, seeking coverage for certain losses resulting from breaches of representations and warranties in the Acquisition Agreement. During the year ended September 30, 2024, the Company recognized a gain of $65.0 million attributable to insurance proceeds received from its representation and warranty insurance policies. The Company continues to be actively engaged in various litigation matters associated with the Tristar Business acquisition and incurs costs to facilitate such litigation matters. As part of these various litigation matters, the HPC segment and the Company are seeking recovery for losses and other damage incurred in connection with the product recalls and separately for alleged fraud committed by sellers of the Tristar Business and other persons in connection with the sale of the Tristar Business to the Company, and in each case other damages and losses incurred by the HPC segment, the Company and the acquired business. While the Company continues to pursue such actions, there can be no guarantees and assurances that recoveries associated with the litigation matters can be realized and recovered. As of September 30, 2025, the Company believes it has assessed appropriate risks and recognized applicable losses and reserves reflecting the net assets of the Company and its HPC segment.